The Final Stand
by Terry Badkind
Summary: The newly fordged world has lived five years prosperly. While during it all a new evil has planned an invasion of epic proportions. The new worlds very foundations will be tested. The Final Stand against it all has begun.


The Final Stand

**Polerman** Alright New material. Please leave a couple of words after reading. If would.

**Disclaimer** Like so many others before me. Ahem Peoples I don't own any concept of the creating of Tales of Symphonia just the original characters I decided to put into this story.

**Chapter One**: Angels!

General Elton Barren looked up into the overcast skies above as a single brown feather hovered down and noticed how the skies seemed fit to drop rain at any second on any regular day but were quiet, Barren wasn't at all surprised to the isolated weather change because he knew if he was sent out into this field, that today was far from regular.

"General is something wrong?" asked one of his assigned troops from 2nd platoon, Sergeant Tibalt Maxx.

Barren looked at the young armored man at his side as they both continued to march on with the other members of the scouting party. "No, it's nothing Tibalt, nothing to get worried about right now I hope." Barren lied in a hopeful tone to try and keep Tibalt's cool level to regular in the middle.

For even Barren's cool level was teetering between 'ultimate paranoia' and 'this is just a cry wolf assignment' because his superior General Seth McCray sent him out here without a proper briefing or troop number because if there was something out here, he wasn't exactly going to be thrilled to take it head on without later relief forces.

So Barren unwillingly moved forward with his men unsure of exactly what they were looking for and to further make it worse Tibalt hurriedly marched to Barrens right side. "Sir where are we exactly because well…not to undermine your authority sir, but it would seem wise to get our bearings before proceeding."

Barren felt like rolling his eyes at the young aspiring Sergeant most likely wanting Barrens job later in life as one of ten Military Advisors of the King. But the only time someone near Tibalt's age even made it in the council of Advisors was General Seth McCray and then again he was pretty much considered inhuman by most people's standards.

'Like his grand victory in the Annual Bronze Sword Tournament at nineteen when all his opponents where thirty year old seasoned vetrans, made many see him as an accomplished swordsmen and then by twenty-two he had become the youngest council member in history, so many would be right to think him inhuman.' Barren thought as he started to go back the task at hand of trying to find the scouting parties bearings.

He held his fist up and his men halted. "Tibalt, map please."

"Yes sir." Tibalt said and reached inside his chest plate for a map of southern mainland of Meltokio.

Barren took the map from Tibalt and unfolded it looking for any familiar things he had passed to this point. 'Alright saw Mt. Fooji on our way in a couple or so thingamajigs that away and that would mean we're here.' Barren mentally noted as he pointed slightly north of the Temple of Darkness just outside of the forest that surrounds its inclined cliffs.

"Alright men this is the place." Barren exclaimed to the rest as his old hoarse voice icily echoed through the overcast surroundings.

"Sir if this is the assigned area of investigation, then where is the…threat, enemy, or objective?" Tibalt asked wavering.

"Clam down Sergeant…" Barren began and then looked into Tibalt's eyes and walked a bit closer to him. "…try to keep your uncertainties to yourself Sergeant…" Barren silently said and then proceeded towards the rest of his men.

"Alright I want three teams of five to move out and scout the rest of the area to save time." Barren ordered to the majority assuming this platoon had already formed small bonds between each other and would get teams set up fast as they could.

The men hurriedly chattered among each other about who should stay and go but even with a few small arguments they managed to get moving out quickly.

"Right how many left in total?" Barren asked Tibalt who was still a bit taken from Barrens last words to him.

"…thirty-five sir not including you or me…"

"Alright good, now for the rest of you, try and not stab yourself in the foot and stay frosty."

Most of them took that as a sign of a break and set their travel packs on the ground and basically almost set up camp right where they stood. 'Elite my ass Seth.' Barren mentally started to scorn his superior for assigning a fresh platoon that on paper were elite but as any sergeant or general could easily tell from this lack of discipline that they were still just grunts.

'Young grunts to, probably haven't even seen human or any other type of blood on the weapons and of course…they still have the innocence in their eyes, eyes that haven't seen another man fall beside them on a charge, eyes that haven't seen the fault of humans…'

Barren slowly reverted his thoughts away from how young this platoon was and about why he was even here. 'Why am I out here Seth? Why here of all places? Why?'

Barren raised his head to the sky once more and brushed at his receding gray buzz cut hair and to his surprise…a feather? 'birds are usually the first to know about storms…why would one still be flying around in one that's about to happen--'

Before Barren could even think of a possibility there was a sound of constant whizzing, like hail but lighter--

_Whiz_ "Gaah!" "Sonofva!" "What the hell—" Barren looked to the rest of his men as they looked as dumbstruck as he felt but only about three quarters where still standing the rest where lying in puddles of their own crimson blood and dieing.

'What the hell is going—on?' Barren began to analyze but quickly knew what was happening. "Shields up you maggots! And keep your eyes up in the skies and draw those damn swords…hurry you bast…"

_Whiz_ "Get behind those damn shields!" Barren shouted lastly and picked up one of the dead soldiers shield and raised it above his head. _Thump! Thump! Bam!_ A steady drum beat of projectiles impacted on the shield and abruptly stopped.

Barren quickly tossed the shield aside and looked to the skies and his eyes shot open. 'What the hell? Angels…!' Barren was quickly feeling a serious denial in his thoughts about these creatures in the skies being angels but saw an almost endless hoard in the skies black armored and armed with arranges of weaponry and formed themselves in neat rectangular formations and proceeded to advance down into the field.

Barren quickly tossing away the teaching he had heard from church and began think of orders to say. "Get up you maggots and prepare to send these angels back to the skies that spawned them!"

"On me!" Barren orderly shouted raising his right fist into the air and watched what was left of the elite platoon form themselves around him with swords drawn and shields ready.

"Archers!" Barren shouted hoping some of them were armed with bows. "For Tethe'alla! Fire!" his final words sounded the release of two dozen arrows being launched at the airborne enemy and with more joy then he suspected a great many came tumbling down to the ground.

The angels finally realizing that if they took their sweet time to land, they would suffer huge amounts of casualties and picked up their pace in flight hurriedly making their way towards Barren and his men. "Fire at will till I say!" Barren ordered hoping that if they manage to kill a lot more angels with indirect fighting and that it might reduce their overall casualty rate.

Within in seconds most of the assaulting angels had landed roughly a few hundred yards away from where Barren had rallied his men into a rough formation. 'A formation that would easily crash under a pin…what to do….' Barren bitterly thought as he knew the next most obvious move any low ranked general would think of, and took a quick look behind him. '…damn their also behind us…dammit!'

"Alright men, form a circle around me and expect heavy assault from all sides…prepare for HELL!"

Barrens last words signaled the beginning, Barrens men quickly formed their circle, raised their shields and swords. The angels had at that moment double timed their efforts and like flood the quickly encircled the small group of men and engaged killing more than twenty-five percent of what was left of Barren and the group.

Barren standing in the centre of this madness, watching his newbie soldiers fight their hardest to hold the circle but were being slaughtered like livestock in a hail of knives. Men were guarding and slashing, guarding and slashing; getting one or two for their efforts before being heartlessly turned into a mound of corpses before their commander.

Barrens head lowered, his eyes focused on his metal gauntlets that held his weapons, weapons for death, death that in every battle was certain to happen, whether it his life, his men's life, his enemy. 'The only difference between me and mine dieing compared to them dieing is…' Barren looked up to see even less men than before and forcefully gripped his left gauntlet. 'We die STANDING, we die for Tethe'alla, and we die fighting!'

Barren moved forward through the human wreckage, looked slowly left than right. 'Forgive me and allow my men peace after…**FOR TETHE'ALLA!**'

Barren quickly felt the need to urge his men to fight better. "Hold the lines damn you! You'll not embarrass Tethe'alla by dieing today, watch your flanks and your follow comrades, just hold for Martel's sake damn you!" Barren shouted to his so called elite platoon as the struggled to hold against these unknown creatures, that may as well have been called angels but Barren had a gut feeling that was strongly urging him differently.

He now stood just a mere meter from joining the fray behind Tibalt Maxx and easily noticed the next wave of angels making their landing.

"Look more come to die!" Barren shouted and finally let go of his gauntlet and felt the old familiar feeling of the mechanical mechanism in both of his gauntlets forcefully releasing three blades the size of large paring knives out of both gauntlets. Barren finally felt like himself again.

"Alright servants of Tethe'alla fight on. Fight True." Barren after his final speech quickly closed the mere meter between him and the fray with claws drawn and held down at his waist as he saw his first target, a group of about five angels gang beating Tibalt but struggling to take him down.

Barren quickly made it to Tibalt's right sight side and raised his right claw to defend against an angels blade, quickly not wanting to take any chances he jabbed his left claw into the emotionless creatures gut feeling the pressure of the attackers blade lessen on his guarding claw, the next target would be credibly easier to take down as it was to busy clashing swords with Tibalt, making a thrust from Barren's right claw to its chest area for a quick feat.

Tibalt quickly took advantage of his free sword and began an all or nothing attack against two angels. Barren somehow felt a gut feeling that Tibalt would be alright and looked for the next available target which was not far away.

It was a rather taller angel compared to the rest, tanner skin, same cold expression, darker hair, a staff that looked to have some sort of significance, and a slightly feminine look to it.

'Won't look to feminine after I'm finished with it!' Barren thought as adrenaline filled is system and took over completely of all his fighting impulses.

In a few running strides Barren was already in front of his opponent claws threateningly drawn at his waist. In a lightning movement both claws were expertly swung in unison, practically shredding the commander angel into a mesh of gore and crimson.

Before Barren could even react he was swarmed by many angels trying to protect their dead commander like a swarm of bees who had just lost their queen and wanted blood in return.

His reflexes and instincts took over as they were automatically put into motion without Barren even thinking to guard against the mass of attackers. Barrens claws were raised above his head to block any lethal blows to the head but the same couldn't be said to other parts of his open stance.

"Arrgh!" Barren shouted as he felt the cold memories flood back to him of battle, war, sacrifice, loss, pain, and hatred. Pains and cold steel were the only things Barren felt as his flooding memories plagued him.

"Arrgh! You call that a wound you weaklings!" Barren felt all of his senses of stability and survival leave him as more blood and adrenaline filled his system. He felt himself lose all control over his body, but instead of fighting to regain his control, Barren allowed it to take him.

"Common is that it!" Barren lowered his guard and watched as his claws skillfully moved at the speed faster than his opponent's movement. One, two three, six…Barren wasn't surprised at the speed his claws were accumulating bodies.

But this would mean nothing if he was the only one left after it was all over so he did a quick glance around while his skilled hands did the work for him. 'One, two, five, eight, fifteen, nineteen…is that it is that all that's left of the elite…holy Martel what now of all things…'

Barren knew he could still turn this into a slim victory if he could somehow demoralize the enemy just like he did in the past in so many battles before this one. 'Alright how do you demoralize a holy army of angels?' Barren wasn't exactly the man to ask but hey knew a few others who might. 'But like hell I'm gonna find Father Mantis or one of his Brothers around here.'

Without any other knowledge about how to demoralize angels Barren continued to fight on with what was left of the elite bodyguard. Barren made one last quick count of what was left. '…THREE!' Barren felt a huge lump in his throat as he began fighting again.

Barren felt everything drop, anything else but the battle had become second, he felt his blood boil, his bones harden, his eyes narrow, his strength double…he felt, the last solider syndrome. Something he hadn't felt since a long time ago; when he was all that stood against the whole world turning inside out.

Barrens whole internal self just went bleak and he had no more control over what was happening, at one moment he was facing three angels, then was already at another batch, then he was looking down at a dozen fallen angels, and finally he was standing over a couple dozen fallen angels and his own men.

Now breathing heavily Barren regained control over himself and glanced at the carnage of the final result of releasing his inner 'war hungry' self. "Men we must leave now if we are to live to fight another day, move out." Barren barked to the last two standing, Tibalt and another solider he didn't know.

The three men began to run north towards Meltokio. 'Going straight for Meltokio would be the most predictable move so…Mt. Fooji, we go there and hide for a bit and by daylight we move out and head home and report this hellish situation to the King, General Seth, and the council. Then harsh vengeance against these angels will begin.

…

"Sir…Should…We…Pursue…Them?"

Liana looked at the fellow angel before speaking. "No…let them report back to their superiors." Liana watched as the emotionless angel floated away before she got one last idea. "Wait…" The angel turned its head. "Harass them a bit more…I want more battle data on that old geezer." The angel nodded its head and proceeded to carry out the given orders.

Liana wanted know more about this old man that had just almost singly handedly taken out a whole batch of angels. "Well they weren't exactly third series…so its expected…but non the less, who is he?"

Liana made one last look at the last three soldiers of the Tethe'allain army as they met up with a few of the men they had sent out before the battle began bringing their total to at least fifteen men.

'Doesn't matter…' Liana last thought before disappearing into nothingness and teleporting up to Derris Karhlan to get new orders from Titus.

The invasion of the new world has begun.

…

Polerman- Totally this story was worth skipping out on Homework and gaming time along with T.V. time because this is so cool.

**_AND_** totally needing Character Ideas for a _Mercenary Company_ that will be involved in this story so I'll probably need about maybe fifteen characters maybe more if it one or two over my initial number, Because if it was up to me I'd probably have about five major Mercs and the rest would be just generic men and women. So do it if you want, don't have to, if you don't want to. You have this chapter and next before chapter three when the Mercenary Company will be introduced.


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